Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Review

war is upon us and AA cries out in pain short of somehow growing a na'vi neural braid and jamming it directly into the base of James Cameron's skull Avatar frontiers of Pandora is pretty much your best option for taking a virtual tour of the stunning alien Moon of Pandora this open world shooter serves up a staggeringly large slice of the Fantastic fictional Universe to explore however hidden amongst all that beauty is a disappointing amount of bloat with copy pasted enemy outp posts and Facilities that made venturing off the main story path far less rewarding than it has been in recent Landmark Adventures such as Elden ring or the last two Legend of zeldas situation is Fubar I still largely enjoyed the 25 hours I spent trying to fend off a resource hungry human Invasion but I wish the environment itself had presented me with more compelling reasons to fight for it Beyond its surface level [Music] splendor set on an entirely new western frontier continent separate from the region where Jake Sully and family have played out 2third of an apparently Five movie story arc frontiers of Pandora is an entirely Standalone adventure with only minor references to the events of the films and thankfully not a single utterance of the word unobtainium at least not that I can recall some Avatar driver named Jake Sully went full native turn the na'vi on us that's why you can't trust any of them even so its overall story arc doesn't too far away from the established series formula Humanity's colonizing resource development Administration or RDA is an oppressive force in the Western frontier with its numerous mining facilities it's up to us playing as an unnamed na'vi raised in captivity they took us from our families to unite the three isolated na'vi Clans in the region and make a stand against Invaders hellbent on doing more damage to the natural habitat than actor Sam Worthington has done to the American accent is this right I just say whatever to the video log broadly speaking I was happy to step into the Kevin Durant sized feet of the Eco Warrior spearheading the uprising but I can't say that I ever became particularly bonded with any one character in frontiers of Pandora that's possibly due to the fact that the countless na'vi clan members I met over the course of the journey were largely indistinguishable from each other in looks and had exotic sounding moners that were easily mixed up in my middle-aged memory I can barely keep track of the names of my kids best friends let alone discern the difference between one character called E2 and another called EA Well you certainly made an impression furthermore frontiers of Pandora's two main antagonists RDA bad guy businessman John Mercer and his head of military muscle General Angela Harding barely have a presence for the bulk of the campaign instead they're mainly encountered via sporadic Video Communications as though there's been an outbreak of cat person Co and they've been left with no choice but to taunt you V via Zoom Get Your Filthy blue hands neither are ever really confronted in a physical sense and their Fates effectively remain undetermined as of the end of the story which left me feeling slightly underwhelmed as the credits rolled get rid of them the Western frontier itself though is truly remarkable frontiers of Pandora provide some genuinely breathtaking environments to explore and thanks to the hyper agility of your na'vi character it's a real joy to experience at speed it's exhilarating to whip along the tops of long Twisted branches and through hollowed out logs huffing the spores of special plants that temporarily boost your momentum and transform you into a Blue Blur that would make Sonic the Hedgehog turn an envious shade of green frontiers of Pandora's World certainly feels alive as well with flowers that bashfully withdraw their stems as you pass by and pods that spit their seeds when you approach as though you just surprise them with a particularly hilarious joke because this vibrant ecosystem is so full of life there's naturally a great deal that can be harvested and killed in order to gather the resources required to prepare stat boosting meals and craft mods for your na'vi weapons and clothing I enjoy the tactile way you harvest Flora by tightening your grip on it with the right trigger and swiveling it to the point of least resistance with the left thumb stick it's the first time I've used this sort of mechanic to pick fruit instead of locks and it feels consistently satisfying when a piece of fresh produce suddenly pops off the vine I didn't get too deep into the hunting side of frontiers of Pandora though and mainly stuck to killing animals in self-defense like the snarling packs of Viper wolves that regularly disrupted my morning jungle jogs but one look at the Hunter's guide in the pause menu reveals a lengthy list of potential prey to track down and although it's not really my style to slaughter space cows I do at least appreciate apprciate the thoughtfulness applied to the design of frontiers of Pandora's ecosystem like how if you can kill an animal cleanly with one Arrow you can claim the best version of its meat for cooking thank you for these gifts but on the other hand if you use a machine gun it will end up being completely spoiled frontiers of Pandora looks amazing when scrutinized up close but it arguably looks at its best when viewed at top and erran soaring through the skies above it and once I bonded with my winged Steed some 5 hours into the story I pretty much chose to travel by air at every opportunity I got admittedly piloting the erran doesn't quite nail the awesome sense of speed here that it conjures up in the films but they're still supremely useful for wiping out smaller RDA installations from above and it really can't be understated how consistently exhilarating it is to leap off a Cliff's Edge and Plum it towards terminal velocity only to Tap a button and have your loyal Ian swoop in to catch you and carry you to safe on its back I don't want to be out since you're basically only wearing a loin cloth and a snar you're pretty vulnerable to the attacks from the human forces that guard every RDA installation you're tasked with taking down so it's just as well you have both primitive na'vi tools and high-tech human Weaponry at your disposal collectively frontiers of Pandora's Arsenal seems pretty limited compared to those featured in Farrow 6 and Horizon forbidden West but there's enough here to get the job done specifically I relied mostly on the na'vi Longbow for sniping ground troops the assault rifle for shredding aircraft from a distance and the surprisingly overpowered shotgun to reduce the RDA Mech into piles of sparking scrap more powerful versions of each weapon class can be found hidden throughout the world or as rewards for completing side quests and equipping the most optimal gear in your load out boosts your overall combat level in a similar way to Destiny or the division in turn each main story Mission or side quest is marked with a recommended combat level but in my experience it didn't seem to pose too much of an additional challenge if I went into a mission underleveled at least on the default difficulty setting I'm not going down so easily it certainly helped that enemy AI is generally pretty dim and some of the special abilities you can unlock in its skill tree can be easily abused once I gained the ability to punch through the cockpit glass and tear Mech Pilots right out of their harnesses I proceeded to forcefully eject each and every one of those fools like they were Nickelback CDs mistakenly inserted into my cast stereo taking fire over here frontiers of Pandora's final Fistful of missions do raise the stakes and up the enemy numbers substantially though and it made for some terrifically tough and tense encounters yet while I appreciated these more Fierce and close quartered forms of firefights against far more heavily armored and agile mechs there were certain times where I couldn't be quite sure if I was being challenged or simply cheated in some instances it felt like enemies were infinitely respawning in others it appeared they had a supernatural sense of my location at all times and most frustratingly there were a number of occasions where I was clearly being shot through cover on the whole frontiers of Pandora shooting is mostly solid but it doesn't really evolve in any substantial ways over the course of the story and it never quite feels as free form as the Far Cry series at its best HUD clutter has long been a concern for many of ubisoft's open World Adventures but to its credit frontiers of Pandora has taken a Marie condo Style clean out to its presentation and although it took me a while to adapt to not having my hand held as much I ultimately found it to be a change for the better navigating the world relies largely on the use of your na'vi sense which momentarily highlights interactive objects in your surroundings as well as the general direction of your currently tracked objective but these highlights quickly fade from view once you release the na'vi sense button and afford you an unimpeded view of your surroundings there were occasionally times where I did lament the absence of a mini map like when I found myself running in circles in one of the bigger na'vi Camp simply trying to find a weapons Trader but for the most part I enjoyed how frontiers of Pandora's navigation allowed me to find my own way through the world rather than just blindly follow a more strictly guided Trail I just wish there were better rewards for exploring off the Beaten Track though because the more I moved around frontiers of Pandora's expanse the more of the same RDA mining facilities I would stumble upon each requiring similar if not identical methods of lever pulling and exhaust vent shooting in order to sabotage them in fact both the main story missions and optional RDA installations have you repeatedly indulging in sabotage like you're a blue skinned beasty boy affirmative we're in the treat and although it's an impressive effect to see previously polluted areas get reclaimed by Nature it all starts to feel a bit syy by the end I can get behind the strong environmental message that frontiers of Pandora shares with James Cameron's films but this isn't exactly the sort of recycling I had in mind real nice way to say yeah you wasted my time but nah you're right Avatar frontiers of Pandora features a stunning alien world to explore countless enemy bases to destroy a na'vi clan side quest to complete and no shortage of exotic flora and FAA to harvest and Hunt however its combat is pretty one-dimensional its Mission design is a bit on the repetitive side and its environment is generally lacking in any major surprises Beyond V visual Splendor meaning that Avatar frontiers of Pandora is a solid shooting Adventure that's more inside the Box than truly out of this world for more IGN 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Keywords: Action, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, James Cameron's Avatar, Luna, Massive Entertainment, Online Co-Op Multiplayer, PC, PlayStation 5, Ubisoft, Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Shanghai, Xbox Series X|S, ign game reviews, ign game reviews 2023, ign review, avatar game, avatar game review, avatar game review 2023

Id: 8u73B9txl54

Length: 11min 42sec (702 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 06 2023